‘Cover Stories’ Archives
Past, Present, Theater
On Stage involves local students in a closer look at Nina Simone”™s work around racialized violence By JESSIE MERRIAM Don't tell meI tell youMe and my people just about due I”™ve been there so I knowThey keep on saying “Go slow!” But that”™s just the trouble ---Nina Simone “Mississippi Goddam” 1963 On Stage's flyer for Nina Simone: Four Women virtual discussions “When we listen to Simone sing ”˜Mississippi Goddam”™--it could”™ve been written yesterday. Somebody needs to write a ”˜Minnesota Goddam”™ right now,” Twin Cities actress Thomasina Petrus declared to the group, gathered on the morning of April 1 to explore the play Nina Simone: Four Women and Simone”™s reverberating legacy. This gathering was arranged by On Stage: Creating a Community Dialogue Around Live Theater, a Twin Cities nonprofit that brings the [...]
Art Parties! Semilla Center for Healing and the Arts
By Interim Director Bart Buch and Artist/Board Member Angela Barrera A Party Invitation: We had a hard year last year, in many, many ways. Covid-19, economic hardship, violence, addiction, police brutality, social unrest, and homelessness have all increased the neighborhood's fear and isolation. One good thing that came out of the emergency of the uprising last year was getting to know new neighbors and looking out for one another during troubling times. We hope and feel better times are coming, Spring is arriving, and we at Semilla Center for Healing and the Arts have an idea, An Invitation! We want to help create better times with new connections, strengthening existing connections, and increasing community trust using art and parties - Art Parties! to celebrate together and continue looking out for one another. In March, Semilla Center started hosting these art parties on the first Wednesday of the month, first online while it was colder outside, then we will meet [...]
A Closer Look at the Deep Winter Greenhouse going up on 15th Ave.
By ELIZA SCHOLL, HECUA INTERN WITH TAMALES Y BICICLETAS A mild late fall/early winter allowed Jacqueline Zepeda (Pine and Poplar LLC, https://pineandpoplar.org/ @femmeempowermentproject) and Scheidel (Fireweed Community Woodshop https://www.fireweedwoodshop.org/) to continue work on the ridgebeam. Photo: Jose Luis Villaseñor April: Villaseñor and volunteers Bozena Scheidel and Mattie Wong affix polycarbonate to the south face of the greenhouse. Volunteers have been essential to the building of the greenhouse, exchanging their time for new skills and community. Photo by volunteer Jessie Merriam On South 15th Avenue, half a block south of E. 28th St., Tamales y Bicicletas is building a winter greenhouse on its urban garden space. For ten years, the nonprofit has used bikes and urban farming to reduce the environmental impacts of the heavy concentration of industry on the East Phillips community. "How do we decolonize our food systems that then leads to [...]
